I do feel a little bit like I’m living in the future,” says Jane Gibson, coyly. “But you get used to things. Automation has become part of everyday life.”

Reader, if you harbour even the slightest Luddite tendency – if you worry about your children playing video games, dislike the idea of Kindles, or fret that social networking will make traditional friendships obsolete – look away now. When it comes to technology, the Gibson family pulls no punches.

In fact, they have built their lives around it. Almost every room in their 150-year-old, four-bedroom, stone farm house in Yorkshire has at least one television (the house has eight in total), all of which are centralised and can play any film or television show on demand. They also host a bewildering variety of computer games.

The heart of the house – or as Jane puts it, “the room we spend most of our lives in” – is a fully automated home cinema, with a seven-feet screen on which they can watch films, television and browse the internet. And when they’ve finished doing that, the two boys, Thomas, 14, and Ryan, 12, take over the big screen for some PlayStation fun (their favourite game at the moment is Assassin’s Creed).

“But they can’t just watch and play whatever they like,” says Jane. “Even if I’m out of the house, I can see exactly what they’re watching on my iPad. If I don’t approve, I can press the ‘lockout’ button and the screen will automatically go dead until the following morning.”

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This is just the tip of the iceberg. Jane can control everything in the house from her iPhone or iPad, no matter where she is in the world (so long as she has an internet connection, and, er, battery life). “It might seem crazy now,” she says, “but soon we’ll all be doing it.”

Here are some of the things that Jane can do remotely: turn the heating on and off (or, as she puts it, “control the temperature”); open and close each individual window in the house; operate all the lights separately (great for when you’re on holiday and want to “give the impression that the house is occupied”); control the internal burglar alarm; monitor the early warning, heat sensitive, perimeter alarm system; use CCTV to see what the children are up to (“it’s good to keep an eye on them”); view, pause or lock a television screen anywhere in the house; operate the music system; and open and close the front gates.

This last function, says Jane, comes in particularly handy. “If someone rings the doorbell and nobody’s in,” she explains, “my iPhone will ring. On the screen, I’ll see live footage of the person waiting outside the gates. If it’s a friend, or a delivery man, I can let them in. If it’s someone I don’t know, I can ask them what they want. It’s brilliant for keeping tabs on who is wishing to enter the property, and it means that I never miss a parcel.”

With all this convenience at her fingertips, doesn’t she worry that her sons will develop a sedentary lifestyle? “We have 36 acres of land,” she responds, “so after a few hours of screen time on the weekend, I make sure that the boys go out and have a romp around.”

The Gibsons moved into the property a year ago, and instructed a local company called Finite Solutions to turn their new home into a sci-fi enthusiast’s paradise. Simon Mathieson is one of the founders of the company, and is now the consultancy director.

“We will do whatever the client wants,” he says. “CCTV in a baby’s room can be great, like a high-quality baby monitor on an iPhone. If they ask for CCTV in a teenager’s bedroom, however, we might suggest that it’s not a good idea. But if that’s what they really want to do, we’ll do it.”

Like Jane Gibson, Simon is adamant that installing a system like this will not automatically lead to a less active lifestyle. “In fact, many of our clients have private gyms which have television screens and entertainment piped in,” he says. “So in a way, an automated system is an inducement to get fit because you know you’ll have a decent level of entertainment when you get in there.”

In addition, he points out, the ability to set strict parental controls on all the media outlets in the house means that children are actually better insulated from harmful televisual content, not put at greater risk.

Finite have been trading since 2002, and now do a brisk trade (full automation can set you back more than £250,000). In recent years, popularity has soared due to rapid advances in technology. “Things like Sky HD and flat-panel screens have been a great boost,” says Simon. “Not to mention the iPhone and iPad. People are realising that an automated home just makes life a lot more convenient. These things will seem completely standard sooner than you think.” And that’s a good thing. Isn’t it?